Summary: Miscellaneous
papers, ephemera, and clippings related to Iris Kelso, her work, and her
interests.

Source: Gift,
1999

Access: No restrictions

Copyright: Physical rights are
retained by the Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans.

Citation: Iris
Kelso Papers, Louisiana and Special Collections, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans

List of
Series and Subseries

Series I. Scrapbooks, 1960-1996

Scrapbooks
containing photocopies of Ms. Kelso's columns for three New Orleans newspapers: The States-Item, Figaro, and The Times Picayune.

Series II. Political papers

Includes
subject files of reference materials, chiefly pamphlets and articles (many of
them photocopied) from newspapers and magazines.

Series III. Miscellaneous

Printed
and visual materials, including books, videotapes, and political ephemera
(e.g., campaign signs and flyers).

Series
Descriptions

Series I. Scrapbooks,
1960-1996

Scrapbooks
containing photocopies of Ms. Kelso's columns for three New Orleans newspapers: The States-Item, Figaro, and The Times Picayune.

Series II. Political papers

Includes
subject files of Kelso’s reference materials, chiefly articles (many of them
photocopied) from newspapers and magazines. There are also smaller amounts of
correspondence, press releases, pamphlets and other ephemera from political
campaigns, transcripts of interviews conducted by Kelso, as well as reporters’
notebooks and other notes compiled by Kelso.

Subseries
II.1: Subject
files: New Orleans

Mayors and Mayoral Elections

Other
New Orleans Material

Book
Proposal and “Best of” Columns

Subseries
II.2: Subject files: Louisiana

Governors and Gubernatorial Elections

Legislators
and Legislative Elections

Other
Louisiana Material

Other
Topics

Subseries
II.3: Subjects
files: Other Topics

Series
III. Miscellaneous

Printed
and visual materials, including books, videotapes, and political ephemera
(e.g., campaign signs and flyers).

Subseries
III.1: Printed Materials

Subseries
III.2: Books
and Videocassettes

Subseries
III.3: Political
Ephemera

Biographical
Note

Born Iris Turner in December 1926 in Philadelphia, Mississippi,
Iris Kelso began
reporting Louisiana politics in 1951, when she joined the staff of the New
Orleans States (later the States-Item), and continued to do so
for nearly half a century in print and broadcast journalism. The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Homer Turner, Iris was just
four years old when her mother died, and various family members helped to rear
her.

Kelso earned an undergraduate degree in 1948 at Randolph-Macon
Woman's College in Lynchburg, Va. The college got her a job at The Hattiesburg
(Miss.) American. "It was a wonderful job because I covered
everything," she said. "I covered courts and things like that. I was
so manic. ... I couldn't stand for a siren to go off without my knowing where
was the fire and how could I get there. It was like living on the edge at all
times." Her boss, Andy Harmon, was also a mentor who eventually used his
connection at the New Orleans States, one of the city's two afternoon
newspapers, to get her a job.

"She was a natural reporter," said Walter G. Cowan,
her boss at The States. "It was obvious to me right off that she
had the ability to talk to people and retain their confidence, even though she
had to ask embarrassing questions. It's the kind of thing that rattles new
reporters, but she always kept her composure."

Kelso started covering government when virtually everyone in
politics and the press was male. "She'd come in and make herself very
much at home. She accepted the fact that she was a woman, but she was a
reporter just like everybody else, and she was going to be the best reporter
that she could be," said former Lt. Gov. James Fitzmorris. When she
described her early New Orleans years in a Washington Press Club Foundation
interview, Ms. Kelso evoked a rough-and-tumble world out of The Front Page"
where hard-driving, profane, cigar-chomping editors hid liquor in their desks,
hollered at reporters, barked into telephones and yanked copy out of
typewriters as the clock ticked toward deadline. She never stopped loving it.
"I love afternoon papers," she said. "I love to cover (a story)
as it happens, and I love to run to a phone. I became a very good dictator. I
could dictate a story like crazy."

In 1959 Kelso was sent to Baton Rouge to cover the Legislature. But
the big story was Gov. Earl K. Long's mental breakdown and his fight with
people who tried to hospitalize him for paranoid schizophrenia. "I was so
touched by the sight of this old crazy man and the tragedy of what was
happening to him," she said. "It was just a very emotional thing for
me."

In 1960 she married Robert Kelso, a rewrite man for The
States-Item. He died in 1972.

By the middle of the 1960s, Kelso said she was tired of being an
observer. "I wanted to participate in something, just to do something that
mattered," she said in the interview. So she joined Total Community
Action, an anti-poverty initiative. She was responsible for the Head Start
program. In the 1980s, Kelso was a founding member of Grace House of New Orleans, a residential drug and alcohol treatment program for women.

After two years with Total Community Action, Kelso returned to
journalism, but in another medium: television, covering politics for WDSU. While at WDSU, she hosted
"Saturday Politics" and won a Peabody Award for her "City in
Crisis," a profile of New Orleans. She
returned to print journalism in 1978 as a columnist for Figaro, an
alternative weekly. A year later, she joined The Times-Picayune as a
political columnist. Interspersed with her political observations were columns
about her neighborhood and her family, which, she said in an interview, were
her most popular.

Kelso’s
work earned her many honors, including the first Media Award (1979) from the
Alliance for Good Government for her "excellence in news reporting on
governmental and political affairs." Iris Kelso died on December 2, 2003,
at the age of 76.

Container List

Series
I. Scrapbooks (41 items)

Three-ring
binders containing copies of Ms. Kelso's columns in the New Orleans States-Item, Times-Picayune, Figaro, and Gambit, and a small quantity
of news articles mentioning or written by Ms. Kelso.

296-1 1961.
New Orleans States-Item. Includes one column dated 1959 and one dated
1960.

296-2 1961.
New Orleans States-Item. Includes one column dated 1959 and two dated
1960. Content almost duplicates 296-1 (contains a few columns 296-1 lacks).

296-3 1962.
New Orleans States-Item.

296-4 1963.
New Orleans States-Item.

296-5 1964-1965.
New Orleans States-Item. Includes original typescript of columns dated
May 16, 1964, and May 23, 1964.

296-8 1961-1979.
"Best of Iris" columns and articles from Figaro, New
Orleans Magazine, other sources.

296-9 1979,
July 25 - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune.

296-10 1980.
New Orleans Times-Picayune.

296-11 1981.
New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes columns pertaining to Brilab,
beginning May 10.

296-12 1982,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune.

296-13 1982,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune.

296-14 1983,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes commentary from
other newspapers on charges by the city administration that local political
columnists, especially Iris Kelso, criticize Mayor "Dutch" Morial
unfairly.

296-15 1983,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune.

296-16 1984,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-17 1984,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Incomplete. Includes
several news articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-18 1985,
January - June 20. New Orleans Times-Picayune.

296-19 1985,
June 23 - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune.

296-20 1986,
January - May. New Orleans Times-Picayune.

296-21 1986,
May 26 - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune.

296-22 1987,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-23 1987,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-24 1988,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-25 1988,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes columns
pertaining to the Republican National Convention in New Orleans.

296-26 1989,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news articles
and commentaries by other writers.

296-27 1989,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-28 1990,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-29 1990,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-30 1991,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-31 1991,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-32 1992,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-33 1992,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes columns
pertaining to the controversy over changing Carnival and several news articles
and commentaries by other writers.

296-34 1993,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-35 1993,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes two political
fliers several news articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-36 1994,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-37 1994,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-38 1995,
January - June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-39 1995,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

296-40 1996, January
- June. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news articles and
commentaries by other writers.

296-41 1996,
July - December. New Orleans Times-Picayune. Includes several news
articles and commentaries by other writers.

Series
II. Political Papers

Includes
subject files of reference materials, chiefly articles (many of them
photocopied) from newspapers and magazines. There are also smaller amounts of
correspondence, press releases, pamphlets and other ephemera from political
campaigns, transcripts of interviews conducted by Kelso, as well as reporters’
notebooks and other notes compiled by Kelso.

The
series is subdivided according to whether the material deals primarily with the
city of New Orleans or with the state of Louisiana. Files dealing with either New Orleans mayors or Louisiana governors have been placed at the beginning of their
subseries. Other files are arranged alphabetically.

Note:

Researchers
should not expect to find all materials dealing with the career of a particular
political figure in a single place. As a working journalist, Kelso created
files for both particular politicians and particular election campaigns, and
filed material according to her needs and priorities of the moment. While not
always consistent, we have tried to remain faithful to her organizational
scheme as much as possible.For example, material on Mary Landrieu can
be found in the files dealing with both the 1995 governors’ race and the 1996
U.S. Senate race, since Landrieu ran for office in both elections. Researchers
would be advised to look for materials in a number of potential locations.

Subseries
II.1: Subject File: New Orleans

Mayors
and Mayoral Elections

These
folders are arranged in alphabetical order by mayor or mayoral candidate.
Specific campaigns are arranged chronologically by the date of the mayoral
campaign.

Box
1:

Mayors
of New Orleans. Contains lists of the mayors of New Orleans

Mayors’ Wives

Barthelemy,
Sidney – 1974-1983

Barthelemy, Sidney – 1986-1989

Barthelemy, Sidney – 1990-1995

Barthelemy, Sidney – Transcripts of
Kelso Interviews; Whelan and Young

outgoing mayor
Morrison and incoming mayor Schiro regarding a dispute over furniture in the
mayor’s office. Morrison wrote to Kelso and forwarded copies of correspondence
he had had with Schiro.

Schiro, Victor – Kelso
Columns

Box
3:

1986 Mayoral Race – Clippings

1986 Mayoral Race – Sidney Barthelemy
Campaign Material

1986 Mayoral Race – Bill Jefferson
Campaign Material

1986 Mayoral Race – Sam LeBlanc
Campaign Material

1986
Mayoral Race – Other Candidates’ Campaign Material: Rudy

Lombard, Terry Hardy, Ben Rauch

1986 Mayoral Race – Sample Ballots and
Push Cards

1986
Mayoral Race – Miscellaneous: Forums, Polls, Campaign

Expenditures

Box
4:

1986 Mayoral Race –
Kelso’s Interview Notes and Audio Cassettes

1986 Mayoral Race –
Kelso’s Interview Notes and Audio Cassettes

1986 Mayoral Race –
Campaign Material for Council Candidates

1986 Mayoral Race –
Campaign Material for Sheriff, Judges, Other

Offices

1990 Mayoral Race –
Clippings

1990 Mayoral Race –
Sidney Barthelemy Campaign Material

1990 Mayoral Race –
Donald Mintz Campaign Material

1990 Mayoral Race –
Miscellaneous. Contains opinion polls, material

from the
campaigns of minor candidates, and a report exploring

whether
conditions would favor Dutch Morial’s candidacy.

Box
5:

1994 Mayoral Race –
Clippings - General

1994 Mayoral Race –
Clippings – Times-Picayune Candidate Profiles

1994 Mayoral Race – Marc
Morial Campaign Material

1994 Mayoral Race –
Donald Mintz Campaign Material

1994 Mayoral Race –
Donald Mintz Clippings, 1991-1993

1994 Mayoral Race –
Mitch Landrieu Campaign Material

1994 Mayoral Race –
Mitch Landrieu Clippings, 1985-1993

1994 Mayoral Race – Sherman Copelin Campaign Material

1994 Mayoral Race – Sherman Copelin Clippings, 1975-1993

1994 Mayoral Race – Ken
Carter Campaign Material

1994 Mayoral Race – Ken
Carter Clippings, 1985-1986

1994 Mayoral Race –
Lambert Boissiere Campaign Material

1994 Mayoral Race –
Sample Ballots and Push Cards

1994 Mayoral Race –
Mintz Fliers Controversy - Clippings

1994 Mayoral Race –
Mintz Fliers Controversy – Fliers, Evidence,

Interviews.
Contains materials concerning the allegations that the

Mintz
campaign produced and distributed anonymous racist and

anti-Semitic
fliers. Includes examples of the fliers, statements and

affidavits
from involved persons, as well as exhibits and evidence

produced for
hearings on the fliers.

1994 Mayoral Race –
Miscellaneous. Contains transcripts of interviews

Kelso
conducted, opinion polls, fliers for public forums, etc.

Other
New Orleans Material

These
folders are arranged alphabetically, and contain materials on topics that are
related to New Orleans. The materials in these files primarily consist of
newspaper and magazine clippings, though other forms are included as well.

Box
6:

ACT / All Congregations Together

Alexander,
Avery

Assessors
- Burkes & Comiskeys

Assessors
- Carter

Bagert
Brothers

Bagneris,
Michael

Bernard,
Sherman (Black Insurance Agents)

Black
Political Orgs

Boggs,
Hale

Boggs,
Lindy

BOLD
(Black Organization for Leadership Development)

Buildings

Cahn, Jules

Canal Street

Canizaro, Joseph

Carter, Kenneth
(Assessor, 1985)

Casinos

Casinos - 1994

Casinos - Tunica

Cassibry, Fred

Celebrity Chefs

Characters

Churches

City Council - 1994
Campaigns

City Council Study - PAR
Group, 1991

City Council - Other

Box
7:

City Park

City Streets

Civil Rights

Clancy, Frank (Jefferson
Parish Sheriff)

Clevenger, Jo Ann

Clubs

Computers ’96 –
Genealogy

Concerned Clergy – 1985

Connick, Harry –
District Atty.

Copeland, Al

Copelin, Sherman

Creoles

Crime

DA – Judges Notes

Democratic Convention,
1964 - “My Letter Home”

Dilberto, Woody /
Glaudi, Hap

1996 District Attorney
Race – General

1996 District Attorney
Race – Connick, Harry

1996 District Attorney
Race – Reed, Morris

1996 District Attorney
Race – Faith Berthey Case

District Attys –
Garrison / Hubert

Dreyfous, George
(Constitutional Rights)

Dunbar, Charles (Father
of Civil Service)

Eastern Airline Crash,
1964

Economy

Elder, Bill

“Excel ‘94”

Fertel, Rodney

Fire Department

Fire Department Museum

Fires

Flettrich, Terry

Floods – Mississippi
River

Fossier, Mildred

Box
8:

Fossier Papers

Foti, Charles (Sheriff –
N.O.)

Fountain, Pete

French Market

French Quarter

Garrison, Jim

General – Sightseeing

Giarrusso

Groesch, Gary

HANO – Cates, Sidney

Harris, Christopher

Higgins, Andrew

Hospitals

Hotels

Houses

Hubbard,
Don

Hurricanes

Indians

Irish

Irons,
Paulette (Dist. 95 – Irons / Rodgers)

Italians

Jazz

Jazz
– Fountain, Pete

Jazz
– Marsalis Family

Jefferson,
Bill

1996
Judge Races

Judges
– Augustine, Israel

Judges
– Sapir, Eddie

’94
Judgeship Elections (Geneo Charts)

Kabakoffs

Kohlmeyer,
Herman

Box
9:

Lacombe,
Allen “Black Cat”

Landrieu,
Mary

Lead
Poisoning, Xavier Prof

Lee,
Harry

Lehman
Awards, 1984

Libraries

Lombard,
Edwin A.

Lombard,
Rudy

Louisiana
Pizza Kitchen Robbery / Murders

Marcello,
Carlos

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras – Collectors

Mardi Gras – Salaun Illustrations

Media

Media – Flettrich, Terry

Media – Read, A. Louis

Media Men, Pollsters. Carvin, Jim

Media Men, Pollsters. Parker.

Media Men, Pollsters. Renwick.

Molpus, Dick – 1994 Speech

Monuments, Statues

Museums

Music

Neighborhoods

NOPSI

NORD

Ochsner, Dr. Alton

Oil and Gas

Old Regular Democratic Organization

Orleans Delegation

Oswald, Lee Harvey

Parish Prison

Parks

Parks – Audubon Zoo

Parsons, Kent

People

People (Great People)

Police Chiefs

Police Scandal, 1950s

Port of New Orleans

Quick Reference from Times-Picayune

Racism – Tulane – Minister’s Statement

Ramos, Paul

Rault Center Fire

Read, A. Louis

Republican Convention 1988

Box
10:

Restaurants

Restaurants – Brennan, Ella

Robinson, Martha

Rochon, Reynard

Saenger Theater, Loew’s

St. Augustine

School Integration, 1960s (Save Our
Schools)

School Reform, 1992

School Reform Candidates

Schools

Schwegmann, John G.

Shaw, Clay

Sports

Sports – Cannon, Billy

Streetcars

Superdome

Termites

Theatre

Thomas, Irma

Top Stories – 1960s – 1970s

Top Stories – 1980s

Top Stories – 1990

Tourism

Tours

Tulane Scholarships

“The Way it Was”

Theobald, Robert

Times-Picayune

University Kickbacks (Tulane, UNO)

Upstairs Bar Fire

Box
11:

Voters Information League

Waltzer, Miriam

Watts, Judith

Weather/Snow

Weil, Gus

Welch, Virginia Cox

Wetland Erosion

Wilson, Peggy

Women in Politics

Women of Note

Wood, A. Baldwin

World’s Fair 1984

Wright, Judge Skelly

Writers

Wynne, Todie Lee

Miscellaneous

Book
Proposal and “Best of” Columns

These
folders contain materials related to a book proposal Kelso was developing and
folders marked by Kelso as her “Best of”. The materials in these files
primarily consist of newspaper and magazine clippings, though other forms are
included as well, such as photographs. Also included are a few miscellaneous
items of Kelso’s, including two photographs and her last column.

Box
11:

Book
Proposal

Kelso
Family Columns

Figaro,
Best of, 1976-1977

Best
of 1980

Best
of 1986

Political
Columns, Best

Press
Club Awards – Women in Government

My
Last Column

Photographs: Veasey [Veazie] at Last
Duck Dinner, Dutch Morial

and Photo Staff, Times-Picayune
1957

Subseries
II.2: Subject File: Louisiana

Governors
and Gubernatorial Elections

These
folders are arranged in alphabetical order by governor or gubernatorial
candidate. Specific campaigns are arranged chronologically by the date of the
gubernatorial campaign.

These
folders are arranged alphabetically by topic, and contain materials on topics
related to Louisiana. The materials in these files primarily consist of
newspaper and magazine clippings, though other forms are included as well.

Box
17:

ABORT Record

Amtrack Wreck, 1993

Angola State Prison

Art Deco

Black Legislative Caucus
Bond Deal (Landrieu, 1993)

Book with Jim Carvin on
Louisiana Politics – Interview and Transcripts. Contains transcripts of
conversations between Kelso and political commentator Jim Carvin, conducted in
the process of preparing for a book the two were preparing to write together.

Book with Jim Carvin on
Louisiana Politics – Outline

Bonnie and Clyde

Beaux, John

Brown, Jim

Bussie, Victor

Cajuns

Chronologies

Civil Rights

Congress

Democratic Convention,
1988. Atlanta.

Dodd, Bill

Elections – Election
Dates, 1972 -1987

Elections – PAR Reports

Environment

Faucheux, Ron

Fitzmorris, Jimmy

Hainkel, John (1999
Political Flyers)

Johnston, Bennett

Kurtz, Wit of LA
Politics

Legislative Candidates,
1993

Box
18:

Livingston, Robert

Lottery

Louisiana Legislators

LA. Legislators – Dixon,
Irma

LA. Legislators –
Hankel, John

LA. Legislators – Henry,
E.L. “Bubba”

LA. Legislators –
Kiefer, Nat

LA. Legislators – Nunez,
Sammy

McKeithen, Fox

O’Keefe, Mike

Old State Capitol

Orphan Train, Early
1900s

Ortique, Revius (First
Black SC Justice)

Perez Family (Plaquemine
Parish)

Plantations

Political Stories

Presidential Elections

Rayburn, B.B. “Sixty”

Republicans

State Finances, 1987

Tonry, Rick

Weill, Gus

Women’s Issues

Miscellaneous

Subseries
II.3: Subject File: Other Topics

These
folders are arranged alphabetically by topic, and contain materials on topics
that are not directly related to Louisiana or New Orleans. The materials in
these files primarily consist of newspaper and magazine clippings, though other
forms are included as well.

Box
18:

Clintons

Cuban Riots at Oakdale
Prison

Mississippi
– Faulkner and Welty

Molpus,
Dick

Philadelphia
Killings

Richards,
Ann (Texas Governor)

Southern
Politics (Republican Rise in 90s)

Series
III. Miscellaneous

Various unfiled printed
and visual materials, including books, videotapes, and political